Gionta, White out with upper-body injuries (video)

Canadiens captain Brian Gionta and Ryan White are out with upper-body injuries and won’t play Tuesday night in Game 4 of the Habs’ playoff series with the Ottawa Senators (7 p.m., CBC, RDS, TSN Radio 690). The Senators hold a 2-1 lead over the Canadiens in the best-of-seven series.

P.K. Subban wasn’t available to the media after the team’s optional skate Tuesday morning at Scotiabank Place. However, coach Michel Therrien and defenceman Josh Gorges welcomed Subban’s nomination for the James Norris Memorial Trophy. Subban is one of three finalists for the award for the league’s best defenceman.

“It’s great for him. I think he deserves it,” Gorges said. “He’s had a fantastic year.”

Said Therrien: “We’re very happy about his nomination.”

The coach added: “We like the way that he’s been playing for us. He’s a lot more dependable than he was a few years ago. And that’s a good sign. He’s getting better and better and it’s well deserved.”

Therrien also talked about how Subban has matured and made a lot of progress all season long. And the defenceman is only 23 with room for his game to go to another level.

“And that’s the fun part of it for us,” Therrien said. “We’ve got a young man who’s got a great talent, he’s a force out there, he’s powerful and he wants to get better.”

i’ve been a habs fan for decades. lafleur was my hero. i don’t think people who lack confidence in price should be called haters. there is some justification for having a lack of confidence in him. he’s played below average in 2 of the 3 games so far. i think his poor play has actually deflated his team in those 2 losses. his career playoff w/l is negative. dryden & roy came in & lifted their teams. i liked price because of his potential but at some point u have to produce. the habs are a much better team except in net. how many chances do u give a guy? do u let him cost u a series?
i wish they’d start budaj. it will be a travesty if they lose to ottawa.

Yes. You have to give Carey the chance to be the number one guy. Thus, you have to let him cost us a series if he can’t get it done. But if he does blow the series, I think it might be his last chance. IF we lose it will be time, in my opinion, to figure out a Plan B (and B does not stand for Budaj).

I’d give it to PK over Letang. even though Letang’s numbers are better, you have to consider who his teammates are (and that goes both ways). But still, I’m always mixed on Norris nominations. Players with insanely high plus minuses should be considered as well, since they’re clearly doing their job effectively.

Omg Steven O. You post stats all the time yet don’t seem to understand the concept of regression. What an inane post on playing Budaj. Are you serious? You play Budaj that many games and you don’t get an 80% win ratio. Also, if you know stats then you’d know 55% win ratio is pretty high for the NHL. Not to mention that wins are a team stat.

Oh and if Gally was taken off the PP as you incessantly suggest then we would not have scored in crucial times.

Let MT take care of the coaching and player management. Obviously he knows a lot we don’t. You don’t go from 15th to 2nd by panicking and relying on superficial stats.

We have two goalies. one won 8 of 10 starts this year, (80%) and the other won 21 of 38 (55%) .

Why in heaven”s name does anyone think that we have a better chance to win with the goalie A, that has a 55% winning percentage than we would with the goalie B, that has an 80% winning percentage?

Is it because the their goals against averages?
Goalie A – 2.59
Goalie B – 2.29

Save percentage?

Goalie A- .905
Goalie B – 908

(Almost) everyone believes the hype about Price but in reality, if he was a better goalie the numbers would show it.

I believe that, in most cases, the better team will win or lose, regardless, of who their respective goalies, but in a tight evenly matched game it could be the Goalie that determines victory or defeat. If it was up to me, I would take my chances with Budaj, tonight.

I understand the coach going with Price, he has to worry about fan reaction, and his bosses reaction. Even though he knows that the team has a better chance to win with Budaj, he cannot take the risk. Losing with Price won”t cost him his job. losing with Budaj might.

We face a similar situation in the 2008-2009 season. Halak had a better winning percentage than Price during the season yet Price started , played, and lost all 4 games to the Bruins in the playoffs.

Looking back at the goalies last three starts that season, Halak ended the season with , a W-W-L, allowing 1 , 2, and 3 goals respectively. Price last three games that season were all Losses, and he allowed 3, 5, and 3 goals respectively.

So going into the playoffs we has a goalie B who had a better season and had won 2 of his last 3 games giving up a total of 6 goals, and Goalie A who has worse season, and had lost 3 on row giving up 11 goals. The GM (Gainey) fired the coach (Carbonneau) and started and played Goalie A in every minute of all 4 playoff games while Goalie B sat on the bench.

I can understand that Gainey had no choice , it was he who drafted Price. Perhaps, Carbonneau was leaning to Halak , and that may have led to his getting fired?

Chillax everyone….
As I told co-workers yesterday morning, we will lose the first game, but will win the series.
Guaranteed!
Eller is a big loss, but honestly what have Patches and Gio done lately? The kids (and Halpern) will fill in just fine.

Letang wins the Norris because he is defensively responsible and was over a point per game this year. Imagine his points if he played as many games as subban (42) or sitter (48). Had he played all the games, he would have been at among the scoring leaders. You can make a case for fire power on the penguins compared to the habs, but both teams lead the league with 10 players scoring ten or more goals. Penguins scored 16 more goals than the habs. So that argument is void. Letang played more minutes per game, showing he is more valuable to their team. So letang will win I think, but in my opinion, it should be sutter. He’s better defensively than the subban and letang, and still puts up points in Minnesota… Minnesota!

Then imagine PK’s performance if he didn’t miss camp and sit out 5 games? This isn’t about imagining “what if”, it’s about “what they did”. I hope PK wins, won’t be surprised if Letang does, but when you compare the teams they play for, PK’s contribution to our success far exceeds, IMO, the contribution Letang made to the Pens. That team would have excelled regardless. Ours wouldn’t have.

I expect Habs will play exactly as Therrien said they would. Fast, focused and hungry with no post-whistle nonsense. I also predict that within 7 hours, the haters will have disappeared, and the faith from the true fans will be restored. At least until tomorrow.

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- look at the penguins record without letang in the line up over the last few years; there is a pretty big drop off. however he is fortunate to play with guys who can finish

– suter in my mind wins it because he brings big time stability. Defensively he is better at shutting down top end offensive players(imo). and offensively his skill set produced pretty good numbers given his staff,

He will get max money – win or not win the trophy.
If the Habs aren’t willing to go longest term with best money, he will wait them out and become a UFA.
Next time around, he has arbitration rights that will get him top dollar anyways

Can anyone tell me what is going on with Knuckles? I live in LA and tune-in to his radio show and every day since the playoffs began the show starts with “filling in for Chris Nilan is…” and I gotta listen to some hoser talking about the pot-holes in Montreal.

It’s the first round of the playoffs and he’s not there? Something is rotten in the land of Denmark….

I hope he is ok.

The Eller loss is hurting us now.

I am proud of the team for the season and our future but this series has been a real struggle. We should not be counting on Gallagher and Gally to lead us. Pleks, Ryder, Pax, DD, Price, Markov have to contribute in a major way.

And I learned that I hate the Leafs more than I hate the Bruins. Go Bruins.

Burl, I agree totally. I would add that the rest of the team, including Price, must play at a much higher level than the last game. Of course with the exception of Gallagher, no one played very well in game 3 so let’s hope that the boys make us forget that disaster tonight by making this a best of 3 series.

The injury factor is the only unknown information that could explain why some players do not play as we are used to see them play. Some are tough on themselves and play injured but they do not really help the team even if they are playing O.K. hockey. But i guess that this is so for all the teams at this time of the year but as always we will learn that so and so was injured…Last year at least 5 Flyers got surgeries after they got eliminated from the playoffs. Not that i am sheding a tear for the Flyers at all but it does explain things afterward…

Man i just checked out the Ottawa Sun forum…. Their doing 2 things pretty much… Calling for Neil to give PK “What’s Coming” or for Neil to “Pummel Gallagher after the final whistle regardless of outcome”…. And I thought Boston Fans were bad

That’s the kind of thing that puts me in a real spot during the playoffs. I want to watch and hate to watch at the same time.

The fact that the referees change the rules makes me absolutely crazy. Any other game of the season and that’s an instant penalty.

And once the Habs have been eliminated in recent years, I have basically stopped watching because the de facto rule changes
are so distressing. Seeing thuggery and interference beat talent is just not acceptable.

I don’t think Neil has an issue with Gallagher at all. Gallagher is our best forward it would appear so he is a target. An easy target. He is small and no one on the Habs will stand up for him. Neil is doing what Moen should be doing to Karlsson and Alfredson.

2005 Trade: Patrick Sharp from the Flyers, along with Éric Meloche, to the Blackhawks for Matt Ellison and a 3rd-round pick in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft.

Then adding key UFAs such as Brian Campbell for the 08/09 season and Hossa for the 09/10 season.

Are we fortunate?
Looking back, the Hawks missed the playoffs for 9 years out of 10 between 1998-2008…then won the Cup in 2010.

We can debate where we are in the process, yet it appears we are still 2-4 years between building a ‘consistent’ contender – not a dreamer with no Cup chance, while compiling the right parts.
We may even take a step backwards to then be able to take 2 steps forwards

The bombastic Burke capitulated to the fans and media.
He knew his time was short, and his brutal miscalculation of the Leafs will haunt that franchise for a long time.
Kessel is a wonderful sniper – one of the best, but he is also a UFA summer 2014 with Minny written all over him.

Really, really appreciate the link to the story about Pacioretty being introduced to his Swiss League team. Very relevant stuff.

And it goes without saying that I’m also very curious to know how the “PK Subban Saga” will end. Personally, I hope Bergevin just lets him sit out for the year and grow up a bit. He’s way too immature to be of any use to this team.